11 Aug
2000
11 Aug
'00
8:10 a.m.
Hi!
Not strictly on topic, since these are fairly new -
but they were old enough to
be thrown out at work, and I got them for L10 each.
It's OK I suppose.
Both machines say Alphastation 200 4/100 on the front,
and I think Model
PB40H-CA on the back.
Nice machines.
One of them boots openVMS, for which I have no
passwords (same old story...).
This machine claims her name is Tracey.
See www.openvms.digital.com to see how to hack this system. No problem.
Anyway, if I press ctrl-C when booting Tracey, I can
get to the console prompt.
SHOW CONFIG then tells me a bit about what's installed in her:
SRM Console X3.9-1387
ARC Console 4.1-22
PALcode VMS X5.48-87 OSF X1.35-57
Serial ROM V4.6
Diag ROM V1.6
CPU DECchip 21064-2 at 100MHz
pka0.7.0.6.0 SCSI 7
dka0.0.0.6.0 RZ26L (this is whence it boots, BTW)
dka100.1.0.6.0 RZ28
mka400.4.0.6.0 TLZ07 (This is a tape drive on the SCSI bus. Presumably at
address 4 - forgot to look when I had it in bits)
It is address 4
With some random flag adjustments to the BOOT command,
I got it into SYSBOOT,
which has another load of useless things to SHOW and SET. This seems to be part
of VMS, though.
It isn't useless. It's to hack the system or make some adjustments so
system parameters before the machine boots. It's very good. Read the VMS
FAQ.
Can anyone tell me, off list if necessary:
How do I break into OpenVMS from here?
See www.openvms.digital.com in the FAQ
If I put in the floppy and CDROM drives from the other
machine, will it
recognise them automatically on boot, and if not, how do I tell it they're
there?
They swill be recognized. Have a look at show device
What OS are available, and whence do I obtain them? I
found a FAQ somewhere at
compaq.com about installing Linux on some models of Alphaserver - not mine, but
could be helpful. Also, what are the various OS useful for?
You can install NetBSD/alpha, OpenVMS/alpha (IMHO the best), Tru64 Unix,
FreeBSD/alpha,...
What are the HDDs? (How big, how easy to replace?
They are both SCSI afaik)
RZ26L is about 1.08GB, and the RZ28 is about 2.xx GB. That's OK.
If I decide to stay with VMS, are there any good books
on the subject? I have
almost no VMS experience (enough to know that I have to PURGE my files from time
to time to stop my disk filling up, but that's about it!)
Read comp.os.vms.... It's useful. And read the FAQ. It's not hard at all.
HTH
--
Best Regards,
Freddy
=====================================================================
Frederik Meerwaldt ICQ: 83045387 Homepage: http://www.freddym.org
Bavaria/Germany OpenVMS and Unix Howtos and much more
FREEBSD, NETBSD, OPENBSD, TRU64, OPENVMS, ULTRIX, BEOS, LINUX